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Review:

CambAngst says:Hello, there, my fellow nail-biting point counter! Thanks so much for doing all you've done to help Gryffindor take the cup! Here is your review.

This is a pretty awesome win-win for me, because I wanted to come back to this story, anyway. I love this idea of the surviving Black sisters slowly coming to some sort of an understanding about their shattered relationship and the terrible things that befell them during the war.

So I felt just a bit of progress in this chapter. Mostly on Narcissa's part. It took an awful lot of courage to show up on Andromeda's doorstep after being ignored for so long. I can't imagine that Lucius was especially supportive of her attempts to reconcile with her sister, either. Not that he probably has much say in the matter. Depending on how you've chosen to imagine him, he's so often just a broken shell at the end of the war.

I loved little Teddy and the way that you've imagined his relationship with his godfather. Harry obviously takes a very genuine interest in the boy, and Teddy seems to adore Harry in turn. I also noticed the way you snuck in that little reference to Victoire. Isn't it amazing how little bits of headcanon slip into everything we write?

Andromeda obvious made progress of a sort, as well. She could have hexed Narcissa. I don't think anyone would have blamed her or come to Narcissa's defense. She could have screamed and cursed at her. She could have simply slammed the door in her face. But she chose to listen; not to change her mind, not to be swayed by her sister's words, certainly not to forgive... but she listened.

The reflections that the sisters share on their insane sibling were also telling. I think Andromeda nailed it. It wasn't that Narcissa liked Bellatrix or approved of the majority of what she did, but Bella was a convenience to Narcissa that she was unwilling to give up, no matter the awful things Bella did. Narcissa never had to do her own dirty work. People deferred to her, I'm certain, because they had no desire to feel Bella's wrath. It was like having a person bogeyman at your beck and call.

You keep coming up with clever little angles to explore, and I know that is what's going to keep me coming back. It will probably be a while, mind you. I'm buried up to my eyeballs in the aftermath of the podcast reviewing challenge. But I do look forward to finding the time!

Author's Response: "Isn't it amazing how little bits of headcanon slip into everything we write?"

Oh, yes. My headcanon is especially persistent about that - little mentions of OCs (especially Van Dedworth) have a way of working their way into an absurd number of stories.

I'm glad you liked little Teddy! I get tense writing kids, because I don't have all that much recent experience with toddlers, but I obviously couldn't exclude him - he's such a big part of Andromeda's life.

I also definitely agree with your take on Narcissa and Bellatrix. In the scenes where we saw them together, it seemed to me that Narcissa had some deeply conflicted feelings about Bellatrix. On one hand, Narcissa did seem to trust and even confide in her sister to some extent. On the other, there were certainly a lot of points where she seemed to find Bellatrix to be downright frightening. It's an interesting dynamic, and I enjoyed exploring it in the next chapter.

Thank you so much for your review. I'm glad you liked this chapter! :)